John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

the people or the treatment? I mean, did you mean Oh, those people or OH! Stop that!

;-)

HeartlandLiberal

By the way, most people continue to be blissfully ignorant of the fact that we human beings are actually pretty much bags of protoplasm designed and evolved under the direction of bacteria for the history of our species and ancestors to provide a life support system for bacteria. Quoting from one article:

So see!? There is intelligent design in the universe after all. And those same designer bacteria are now evolving rapidly to avoid the effects of the antibiotics we humans have stupidly over used, thus progressively rendering them ineffective.

The human body carries more than 100 trillion bacteria – up to five
pounds of the tiny single-celled organisms. The mouth alone has several
hundred species of bacteria. Each tooth is its own ecosystem.

Together, all of the bacteria in the body would be the size of a large liver, and
in many ways, scientists say, the microbiome behaves as another organ
in the human body.”
</blockquote<

HeartlandLiberal

Nice video, minor quibble. The word bacteria is plural. “Bacteria ARE
gaining on us”. Bacterium is singular. One bacterium is; many bacteria
are. Brought to you by the grammar police. Note for those who want to
quibble that in the sentence “the word bacteria is”, word is the
subject. By ellipsis, you could correctly say﻿ “bacteria is plural”, as
long as it is clearly understood you mean the word.

Indigo

Oh, those Brazilians!

rerutled

What’s interesting to me is that this list of “disturbing scientific facts” was clearly chosen to make one feel physically vulnerable. It’s a calibrated entertainment, relying upon the fact that people are emotionally transfixed by threats. And *that* to me is an interesting scientific fact.

As animals we are extremely vulnerable in the natural world (consider, for example, what life would be like if tomorrow, everyone went barefoot); and yet we have almost doubled our life expectancy and vastly improved our quality of life over the past few centuries through application of scientific discoveries in biology and physics; and much of this knowledge has been achieved almost casually, through application of no more than a couple of percent of the total efforts of humanity. That, to me, contains inspiration: it says we love each other enough to work to apply our knowledge to make all our lives happier.

cole3244

the blue pill has met its match.

benb

Oh, yeah, baby…I’ve been bitten and you’re the only one around who can suck the poison out.

In general though, venoms are fascinating compounds. The peptide in the wandering spider venom that causes priapism is actually being investigated for its potential as an erectile dysfunction drug. Venom of gila monsters is used for diabetes treatment. Deathstalker scorpion venom is used in the treatment of brain cancers. Among many other types of venom. They’re so marvelously complex, that we’ve barely scratched the surface in the potential medical uses for the various compounds found within them, and every species’ venom is different. There is even evidence of differentiation within species, varying by locality. So who knows what may come out of venom research in the future. Assuming the anti-science nutsos around the country don’t put the people who keep and breed those animals in laboratory settings to get proper and usable samples out of business, out of fear.